i THE VITAL IMPETUS 97 



component cells of the eye and their mutual co- 

 Ordination : in this sense, neither mechanism nor 

 fmalism go far enough. But, in another sense, 

 mechanism and finalism both go too far, for they 

 attribute to Nature the most formidable of the labours of 

 Hercules in holding that she has exalted to the simple 

 act of vision an infinity of infinitely complex elements, 

 whereas Nature has had no more trouble in making an 

 eye than I have in lifting my hand. Nature s simple 

 act has divided itself automatically into an infinity of 

 elements which are then found to be coordinated to 

 one idea, just as the movement of my hand has dropped 

 an infinity of points which are then found to satisfy 

 one equation. 



We find it very hard to see things in that light, 

 because we cannot help conceiving organization as 

 manufacturing. But it is one thing to manufacture, 

 and quite another to organize. Manufacturing is 

 peculiar to man. It consists in assembling parts of 

 matter which we have cut out in such manner that we 

 can fit them together and obtain from them a common 

 action. The parts are arranged, so to speak, around 

 the action as an ideal centre. To manufacture, there 

 fore, is to work from the periphery to the centre, or, 

 as the philosophers say, from the many to the one. 

 Organization, on the contrary, works from the centre 

 to the periphery. It begins in a point that is almost 

 a mathematical point, and spreads around this point by 

 concentric waves which go on enlarging. The work of 

 manufacturing is the more effective, the greater the 

 quantity of matter dealt with. It proceeds by concen 

 tration and compression. The organizing act, on the 

 contrary, has something explosive about it : it needs at 

 the beginning the smallest possible place, a minimum 



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